Murray To Face Marchenko For Biella Challenger Crown
A trophy will be on the line when Andy Murray battles Illya Marchenko on Sunday in Biella, Italy. On Saturday, Murray earned the most comprehensive victory of his stay in Biella, as the former World No. 1 surged into the final of the ATP Challenger Tour event with a 6-0, 7-5 win over Mathias Bourgue. The top seed at the Biella Challenger Indoor 1 fired five aces and saved four of five break points faced to reach the championship match.
Murray, who needed one hour and 33 minutes to dismiss his French opponent, extended his streak of sets won to eight in a row. As he seeks to build confidence and momentum to start his 2021 campaign, it has been a successful opening week for the Scot.
After dropping his opening set of the tournament, Murray has navigated through tricky terrain en route to the final. On Thursday, he overcame an eclectic Gian Marco Moroni in the second round, before outlasting sixth seed Blaz Rola 6-4, 7-6(9) in Friday’s quarter-finals. It was against Rola that he needed five match points to cross the finish line, while saving four set points in the second-set tie-break.
When Murray and Marchenko meet for the title, it will mark the Dunblane native’s first final appearance in nearly 18 months. In 2019, following his long-awaited return from hip surgery, he lifted the trophy at the European Open, an ATP 250 event in Antwerp.
On the ATP Challenger Tour, he is bidding for his first piece of silverware since 2005. At the time, an 18-year-old Murray was first embarking on his professional journey. He would claim back-to-back crowns on American soil, in Aptos, California and Binghamton, New York.
Now, as Murray descends on the Challenger circuit with a different objective, a trophy will taste just as sweet. In search of match play as he pushes towards a return to the Top 100 of the FedEx ATP Rankings, he will also play the Challenger 125 event in Biella next week.
Murray and Marchenko’s first meeting at the 2011 Australian Open
Marchenko, meanwhile, toppled second seed Federico Gaio 7-5, 6-1 in Saturday’s other semi-final. The former World No. 49 has also conceded just one set en route to the final. Nearly two years removed from his most recent title, the Ukrainian previously triumphed at the Challenger tournament in Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan in 2019.
It will be the third encounter between Murray and Marchenko, following a pair of Australian Open victories for the 33-year-old Scot. He previously prevailed 7-5, 7-6(5), 6-2 in the second round in Melbourne in 2011, before scoring a 6-1, 6-3, 6-3 victory in the first round in 2017.
In fact, Murray will have faced three straight familiar opponents when he battles Marchenko on Sunday. His quarter-final win over Rola was a rematch of their Wimbledon encounter from 2014. And his semi-final victory over Bourgue was their first meeting since the Frenchman pushed Murray to five sets at Roland Garros in 2017.
You can watch a free live stream of the Biella championship at 4:30pm CET/10:30am ET.